


parabol|parabola

by baberahamlinkin



Series: The Briannie Files [1]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén
Genre: Action, Assassination Attempt(s), Assassins & Hitmen, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Bodyguard, Broken Bones, Canon-Typical Violence, Farm Jobs, Farm days, Fight Scene, Fist Fights, POV Second Person, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, pre-sidestep era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:36:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27964676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baberahamlinkin/pseuds/baberahamlinkin
Summary: You're a hunter. They're your prey. They are your mission. You were not trained to fail, to falter, and you will win: no matter what.
Series: The Briannie Files [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048075
Kudos: 3





	parabol|parabola

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sidonut](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sidonut/gifts).



They are avoiding you. 

You have been hunting them for days… no,  _ weeks _ now and you have finally cornered them here. You grit your teeth and look around the building- it's an office building, cubicles here and there like some sort of monochromatic maze. They could be hiding in any of them; and you know they're here. There are two of them: one female, trained like you; the other male, older. He's your target. The other is just a tiny, insignificant obstacle in your path. The rain is coming down heavy against the glass windows- they’re the tall ones, the ones that stretch from the floor to the ceiling-, so much so it's almost deafening but you ignore it and press on. The sprinkler system’s been alerted- she’d pulled the alarm to evacuate the building, to try and throw you off, but she’s been unsuccessful so far; just like how she’d cut the power to try and blind you, but you don't need to see to track them.

Your hand smashes against the emergency fire axe box on the wall. The glass cuts your fist and you can feel the blood dripping down your fingers but you don’t care. She’s a telepath like you, you can’t just rely on your mind to win the battle for you. Your fingers wrap around the handle and you pull the weapon out.

You proceed down the hallway and tilt your head as you listen. You can feel them nearby, you can pick up their thoughts. You sense fear, anguish; mild disappointment. Hers? His? You’re not sure. You don’t care.

You’ve come too far to care about their feelings and you’re so close you can taste it. You don’t know how you’ve ended up here in this building, but you have.

Attack.  **_Now._ ** To your left.

You plow through the nearest cubicle's thin plastic trim just as the thunder booms overhead. You're so close, so goddamn close, and your fingers graze the back of your target's neck- but  _ she _ stops you just in time. She slams into you and the two of you are sent sprawling across the carpeted ground. The carpet burns as your skin rubs against it. The axe bounces from your hand as soon as you hit the ground and the two of you are on your feet in an instant. She rushes you and you step to the side, locking your arm around her waist as she passes by. You lift her like she’s nothing, squeeze, and in one fluid moment you send her careening down the hall. She grunts when she strikes the ground and you snag the axe again. 

She’s just getting to her feet, a hand pressed to her side, when your fingers tangle into her hair and you smash your knee into her face. She makes a strangled noise and stumbles back, now clutching her nose, and you round on her. You swing the axe but she manages to catch your arm with her hand and dip low enough to evade the blow. Her fist strikes you in the side and you grunt, but you’re not about to be outdone. You’ve come too far to be bested, you’ve come too far to fail.

You won’t fail again, not when your life’s at stake. You slam your knee into her side and she stumbles back, muffling her cry to try and appear like more of a threat. You’re the same height but she’s lithe and you’re a tank, you have the advantage of your strength; but when her mind probes at yours you find that here she has the advantage. You can’t allow that. You tighten your shields as best as you can while she looks for an in to your mind and swing the axe again. The flat of the blade strikes her shoulder and it slams her against one of the windows. You swing again and again she manages to evade your attack. You scream, enraged, and the blade of the axe slams through the window and the glass shatters. Most of the glass flies outward and into the open air, but a few shards fall onto the carpeted ground. She picks up a decently sized chunk of glass and you curse silently- you’ve just inadvertently armed her.

You advance on her. She takes a swing at you first when you’re exposed and you skip back a step, but she does manage to get you. You grunt, touch your free hand to the left side of your chest, and ignore when your hand comes back bloodied. You grit your teeth and your head snaps up to her, eyes narrowing in anger. You’ve been bled at the expense of other people for too long- she doesn’t get to bleed you, too. You lunge at her and she brings the glass down and into your right shoulder- fuck, you’re lucky you’re left handed. It rips into you and you scream- either in pain or rage, you’re not sure- when she shoves the glass in further and pulls. The glass tears through your skin as you slam her into the ground, your right hand wrapping around her throat and you squeeze.. You raise the axe as she drives the glass deeper into your shoulder and you do your best to ignore the blood dripping down your skin and into your clothing. 

You bring the axe down and she raises her free arm. Her forearm collides with yours, stopping the blade about an inch or so from her face. She turns her head to avoid it, glaring up at you through the corner of her eyes as she struggles, teeth gritted and stained with blood. Your grip tightens on both her throat and the axe handle and you begin to shove downward, gritting your own teeth in determination. The blade begins to press against her cheek when something in your head clicks- she’s found a way in. You freeze up, ready to combat her in a different way, and she takes advantage of your confusion and disarray. She rips her legs out from underneath you and plants her knees into your chest. You grunt, and through the power of sheer adrenaline she forces you off of the ground and to the side- right toward the shattered window. You hit the ground and the lower half of your body carries you through, but you’re lucky enough that your left hand catches the window’s ledge. Your fingertips dig into the grip you’ve found, the only thing keeping you from free falling the thirty feet to the roof of the building sidled against this one. You begin to pull yourself upward, your hand slick with blood- your blood, her blood- and you try to lift your right arm to aid you but you don’t have much luck there. Still, it’s almost working. 

The muscles in your bicep burn as you heave yourself upward, teeth gritting as you finally get your entire left arm back into the building. You’re running on spite and hatred now as the shards of glass at the bottom of the windowsill digs into your chest. Your fingertips dig into the carpeting and you pull again, successfully managing to get your right arm up and over the ledge. Now you just need to pull your upper body in. You huff, your muscles straining, and you get your torso halfway up when her shadow starts to loom over you.

Her nose is still bleeding and her hands are shaking from adrenaline. Her throat is bruised and she spits a glob of blood to the side as she begins to walk toward you. You bear your teeth at her, seething, and for a moment the two of you just stare at each other. She stands before you, fists clenched, and you hang helplessly.

You lunge, scrabbling to drag yourself back in to finish the fight, but she draws her leg back and, with all the force in her body, swings her leg at you. Her foot collides with your nose with a gruesome  _ crack _ and your head snaps back in an explosion of blood. Your body goes limp with the force of the blow and your eyes widen as you lose your grip. You think you scream as you fall- mostly in rage, you ignore the pain… you’ve been trained to ignore the pain. You scream because you failed, because anything  _ they’ll  _ do to you when they find you is ultimately worse than this.

The first thing that you feel when you hit the ground is the way your shoulder snaps, the way you  _ shatter _ . You land on your side, and it’s one of the worst pains you’ve ever imagined. All the air in your body rushes out of you and the noise the entire right side of your body makes is ungodly. Your head strikes the ground in a way that has you seeing stars and you’re not really sure how you’re still conscious- it must be the adrenaline. Something in your ribs definitely breaks and suddenly you’re no longer able to breathe, and it’s not just because you’ve had the wind ripped from your lungs: it’s because something’s punctured them, like they’re nothing more than a balloon. 

You, by some miracle, roll onto your back. It’s a bad idea, you can’t breathe any better and it hurts more, but you watch her stare at you from the window. You glare up at her, seething, and she glares back. 

She won, she was successful.

And you weren’t.

And you’re going to pay for it.


End file.
